A chain of card and art shops has stopped taking cash payments after its bank closed nearby branches.

Whistlefish, which has 11 outlets in Devon and Cornwall, changed its policy this year over security concerns.

Tony Bright, the company secretary, said: “Cash is becoming increasingly difficult to handle because of bank branches closing.”

The first of its shops to switch to card-only transactions was in Dartmouth earlier this year. “We didn’t have the facilities to store large amounts of cash,” Mr Bright said. “With the rise of contactless card payments we were taking less cash anyway. It is a security problem: there’s a risk to our staff and a risk of takings being stolen.”

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He said there had been only one email from a customer complaining about the switch. “I suspect a lot of businesses will go the same way. It will become increasingly difficult for businesses to take cash.”

Roger Tarrant from the Federation of Small Businesses in Cornwall, said Many small businesses were embracing cashless payment methods.

“However, setting up facilities to process card transactions can be far more of a challenge in rural areas. Small firms are hit with various fees when they process a card payment, that’s on top of the costs of running and maintaining a card payment terminal. From the beginning of this year, it’s illegal for small firms to share those costs with customers.

“It is critical that full impact assessments are carried out prior to bank branch closures and local small firms receive meaningful support to prepare them for loss of a branch.”

In a briefing paper last month the House of Commons library said the bank branch network has declined from 20,583 branches in 1988 to 8,837 in 2012. Last year alone, the four big High Street banks closed, or announced plans to close, 948 branches.

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One of those, HSBC, said yesterday that the decision to close the branches “reflects a change in the way customers are banking, HSBC’s continued investment in digital banking, and its objective to achieve a sustainable branch network for the long-term”.

A spokesman said: “Over the past five years the number of customers using HSBC branches has fallen by almost 40% – 93% of customers’ contact with the bank is now by telephone, internet or smartphone, and 97% of cash withdrawals are made via an ATM.

He said HSBC was putting measures in place to help customers, and has a partnership customers to use Post Offices for day-to-day banking.